Since I derive so much pleasure from the bounties of the earth, what with all the hunting and fishing and camping I do, I decided I wanted to really experience, enjoy and celebrate EarthDay this year. So, I took along a little digital camera to document my day – and maybe to give you some ideas of fun activities for EarthDay next year.

Ever stand near a creek and just listen to the sound of the running water? I love that sound. So yesterday morning I took a long hot shower and then left the water running in the sink while I shaved and brushed my teeth. As usual I had to flush the leaky 2.6-gallon toilet two or three times. Trickle trickle, flush flush.

As I was leaving for work yesterday, I thought about how beautiful a spring morning can be, and since I was running a little ahead of schedule, I took the long way around the outerbelt in my V-8 Ford Earthfucker F-150 super-crew pick up truck. I love the sound of those straight pipes! And you wouldn’t know it top look at it, but that V-8 can really smoke some tires.

(That’s actually a picture from last year when I bought it)

I put all my electric windows down and opened my electric sun-roof to enjoy the start of EarthDay, but it was a little warm this morning, so I flipped on the AC in the truck – I had to crank it up to full power with the windows down!

When I arrived it was a little warm in the office, so I cranked up the AC there too and plugged in a couple fans. It was such a nice EarthDay morning though, I opened some windows to enjoy some of that fresh EarthDay air.

I went to get a bottle of water and of course, someone had taken the last one and not refilled the fridge.

The only problem with that fridge is that it was made in like, 1970, and the door never really closes all the way and it leaks freon, so we have to keep a couple cans of the stuff on hand. I think pretty soon we’ll have to toss that thing into the appliance heap in the deep end of the reservoir and buy a new, energy-efficient one.

We have a blue trash can in the break room labeled “Recycle” but I always throw my cups and cans and plastic bottles in the trash can under my desk. I figure it this way: they usually turn old landfills into golf courses around here, so the quicker we fill that sucker up, the sooner we’ll be able to plant grass and trees for the birds and bees.

In order to get everyone else into the spirit of EarthDay, I turned on all the computers and monitors in the office and pulled up some really nice pictures of the earth so as we walk around the office we could all remember what we’re worshipping celebrating.

I took a half-day of vacation yesterday afternoon so I could get outside and enjoy all that the Earth had to offer on EarthDay. At lunch time a bunch of us drove our cars and meet up at Hoggy’s Barbeque for some wood-smoked, pulled pork sandwiches on the patio. Hoggy’s always gives you too much to eat, but the good thing is they serve everything in big styrofoam containers so you can take your leftovers home – think landfill again…

Just down the street from Hoggy’s is my gun club, so some of us drove over there to shoot some trap. I had some old lead shot I needed to use up so I can reload the shells with steel shot for turkey season – See? reloading = recycling! – Doin’ my part here boss!

That’s me on the left.

It was pretty hot outside by then, so I left my truck idling with the AC on while we shot – it was nice and cool when I got back in.

Speaking of idling cars – over lunch we were discussing to what extent an idling engine might “hurt” the “environment” when someone posed the question: Would a car with a full tank idle longer on a hot day or on a cold day before running out of gas? I said hot, and a co-worker said cold, so we made a bet. Once a week between now and year-end, we are going to park a company car in the lot with a full tank of gas and let it idle until it runs out of gas.

By Christmas we will know which produces a bigger “carbon footprint.” Whatever that is. I’ll let you know the results – we’re doing what we can for EarthDay.

Oh, I forgot…hooked to the back of my truck yesterday was my 35 foot Donzi.

My truck only gets about 8 miles to the gallon hauling that thing around, but it was forecast to be a nice EarthDay so I thought we might have a chance to drop it in the lake and do some boogyin’ – which we did. I’ll tell you, with 5 people on board and that Mercruiser 525 humming, you can really run that 170 gallon gas tank low in a hurry!

We pulled back into the boat ramp at about 3:00. I loaded up the boat, said so long to everyone, and headed for the airport. I was meeting a buddy there who is interested in maybe getting his pilot’s license, so I took him up for a little EarthDay jaunt around town.

At 9 gallons an hour, you don’t want to be flying too much unless you have a purpose, so we only flew for an hour or so.

When I got home around 5:00, it looked like the lawn needed to be mowed, so I fired up my trusty old mower.

I know it doesn’t look like much, and I got it from my Dad so I don’t know how old it is. Also, it burns about a quart of oil every time I mow the lawn, but it keeps on chugging. The hippy neighbor complains about the smoke drifting into his yard – but I tell him “Hey – it mulches so, there you go – recycling!”

After the lawn was done, I lit the gas grill (range-raised bison steaks last night – Mmmm) and let it run a while to get good and hot and burn all the grates clean.

See how clean those grates are?

While the grill was warming up I tackled my last chore of the day – opening the pool. I usually open it a little earlier in April than this, and with the warm weather we’ve been having, the water in the pool had turned pretty green, so I had to dump about twice as much hypo-chlorate (super-concentrated liquid chlorine) in to get it cleared up.

It doesn’t irritate your skin though because as the water starts to clear up, you start pumping most of that high-concentrate chlorinated water out into the storm drain and start running new water from the hose in.

After dinner it was cigars around the outdoor fire pit.

I am truly thankful that I got to enjoy all that the outdoors has to offer on EarthDay. I hope yours was just as enjoyable. Leave a comment and let me know how your EarthDay went!